Consultation on unregulated accommodation extended
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
The government has made an eleventh-hour decision to extend the controversial public consultation on unregulated supported accommodation due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Children’s Minister Vicky Ford announced the eight-week extension today (Wednesday 8 April) when the consultation was set to close.
She said: “Every child in care deserves to be safe and secure, now more than ever as we fight the outbreak of coronavirus.
“Today we are extending the deadline of the consultation to 3 June so that everyone who wants to respond has the opportunity to do so, and to allow social workers and frontline services to focus on providing urgent care during these challenging times.”
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The move comes after 91 organisations and professionals, including children’s rights charity Article 39 and the British Association of Social Workers, wrote to Ford calling for the consultation to be extended.
The extension has been welcomed, however, critics have reiterated concerns over a lack of engagement of looked-after children and care leavers throughout the consultation so far.
Carolyne Willow, director of Article 39 said: “This is excellent news and absolutely the right thing to do. Now we need to see government plans for directly consulting care-experienced people. It may turn out that an eight-week extension is not long enough, but at least the principle has been accepted that those whose lives are potentially affected by these proposals must be at the heart of the consultation.”
The Children’s Rights Alliance for England, part of Just for Kids Law, wrote on Twitter: “We're pleased that the deadline for DfE’s consultation on unregulated provision has been extended to 3 June. We hope this will allow for consultation with children and young people who will be affected by the proposed changes.”
The consultation, launched in February, proposes to ban the use of unregulated supported accommodation for under-16s and introduce new minimum standards for such provision, Ford said.
However, it has sparked controversy amid claims over-16s had been overlooked, which led a coalition of organisations to start a "Keep Caring To 18" campaign.
The consultation also drew criticism after CYP Now revealed the Department for Education had set up a “secret” working group of experts including directors of children’s services and representatives from organisations including Ofsted and the Local Government Association.
DfE and members of the group denied it had been set up in secret but Ford confirmed it had been tasked with drafting new minimum standards alongside the ongoing consultation.
Emerging details of the group led to further criticism over a lack of involvement of care-experienced people, however, group chairman Sir Alan Wood said involving young people and care-experienced adults was not part of its mandate.
He added that the DfE had been in talks with children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield over the involvement of young people, however, the commissioner’s office said it had been working on a “separate piece of work on the issue unrelated to the review”.
